Some Potentially Overlooked Good Children's/Young Adult Fiction Reads

OK, So I haven't made good on my promise to create our own "Top 100 Children's Books" list yet , but We'll be working on it. In the meantime, in honor of "Works For Me Wednesday", here are some books that I pulled out from the library bookshelves for RJP to read in the past few months , that subsequently received good reviews from her...(Although they aren't written for the most part... sorry)
       Christopher Mouse, the Tale of a Small Traveler by William Wise  ~  The story of a mouse who begins his life in the home of a woman who breeds mice for scientific research and pet stores. His adventures range from a pet store to being a pet to running loose at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is probably a great read-aloud for boys or girls aged 7 and on up to "Filler" for your pre-teen/voracious reading teen.



Hope these work  for you this Wednesday, to give you some new ideas for good wholesome  tween/teen reading... I'll add more as I get to it~

Blessings~

Note: I used affiliate Amazon images because it was super easy to add the books this way. I appreciate any purchases made through the links, but please note that at least one of the books is not available for purchase... Check out your public LIBRARY! :)

Making the internet "work" for you

Hey, I figured I ought to send out a post about some of the money-saving aspects of the internet that I have benefited from. Some of these programs DO have referral benefits(Signified with a **) , so if you haven't signed up, I'd really appreciate it if you used my referral links. Others are just great ideas~ So, here goes:

WFMW~ Moring Coffee

So, here's a plug-in that really works for me~
Morning Coffee created by Shane Liesegang is a very useful Firefox application if you are like me and have websites/blogs, etc that you like to visit regularly, but sometimes forget about. You can configure them to open up daily or weekly on specific days. Very cool for getting to blog posts like Works for Me Wednesday or Wordless Wednesday, or Freebie Friday, or Menu Planning Monday. I also like it for reminding me to check pages like Homeschool Freebie of the Day, and such.

Check it out~ You may find that it works for you as well!
Blessings~

Works for Me Wednesday~ Summer fun(chalk drawing)

One of my favorite activities with my kiddos in the "good weather" is to make great sidewalk chalk drawings. Rather than just hopscotch or generic scribbles, we like to pull out this book

and create some fun critters on our sidewalk. It is especially fun to have an 8 foot turtle and six foot frog on your front walkway! :) For really colorful drawings, we like to dip our chalk in water to make it a little wet, and then draw.... it covers REALLY well that way!

For your more advanced artists, this is another good pick (Although I really *do* like the animals best...)

I'm going to look for some pictures to add as examples, but I'll post in the meantime.. just check back later, if you want to see what we've done. (I'm also going to look for a nifty Peter Rabbit chalk drawing that I did some time ago... )

This works for us!

For more summer fun, check out my Frugal Friday post, and all the Great ideas at

Works for Me Wednesday~ Pandora

Hey, have you heard of Pandora? It's an online "radio station" that you can personalize! You can even create any number of "Stations" that you want to listen to. (Thanks, Nathan, for the tip about Pandora... we've been loving it!) I wasn't so sure about it at first, given the Greek Myth of Pandora

Here's a snippet from their website about the name:

The name Pandora means "all gifted" in Greek. In ancient Greek mythology, Pandora received many gifts from the Gods, including the gift of music, from Apollo. She was also, as we all know, very curious. Unlike those Gods of old, however, we celebrate that virtue and have made it our mission to reward the musically curious among us with a never-ending experience of music discovery.

So, the basic idea is that you type in an artist or song that you like, and Pandora searches the "Music Genome Project". While you may not instantly hear that song or artist, you WILL hear a song with similar qualities. Then you have the option of rating it thumbs up, or thumbs down, and Pandora will continue playing songs, using your feedback to create your personal station.

I have an Alison Krauss station that is fantastic (With *mostly* Alison Krauss music, although I've heard JT, EmmyLou Harris, etc... and some new names that I'm enjoying getting to know).

I created a Josh Groban station for mellow music to school to, A "Boppin' Praise" station with the likes of Chris Rice and Casting Crowns, and a couple of folk stations. I have yet to create a classical station or two, but that's a thought, and I bet that I'll get a Christmas station going in the later fall!

I really enjoy being able to hear new music that is in a style that I appreciate. I think this is a great thing, and my kids are loving it too.

Check it out!

Lis

Our favorite Pizza....

Well, this blog hasn't gotten as much use as my TOS Crew reviews blog, but I'm going to try to remedy that. One of my "Crew-mates" introduced me to the world of "memes", so I'm joining my first with this "Works For Me Wednesday" post.

Due to frantic Friday evenings getting out to AWANA, last year was the year of the frozen Schwann's pizza. This year, in trying to "Save some dough", I decided to try making my OWN dough. I searched for a recipe for "Quick Pizza Crust" and found this . I have played with it and modified it over the months, so what follows is my version of quick and easy and TASTY pizza, with no preservatives, and only whole wheat goodness! (Editing to add in another variation that we like right now!)

Friday's Fabulous Fast Fixin's(aka Speedy Pizza)
This recipe makes enough to fill two large rectangular bar pans from Pampered chef(I suppose it would work for two round pizza stones, too, but I don't have any of those, so we eat rectangular pizza!)

• 4 1/2 tsp yeast
• 2 tsp sugar(I used Florida's Naturals)
• 2 cups warm water
• 5 cups whole wheat flour OR 2 cups whole wheat flour, 2 cups white wheat flour, and 1 cup cornmeal (This is our current favorite crust combo)
• 4 Tbs olive oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup shredded cheese(Optional)
• 2 tsp dried basil OR 1/4 cup Sesame Seeds (Optional)
  
• extra olive oil
  

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Set the timer for 10 minutes.
Mix the flour, salt, cheese, and basil in a medium sized bowl, while the yeast is "activating".
When the timer goes off, the yeast mixture should be "creamy", if it is,
Add the yeast mixture and the oil to the dried ingredients, and beat until smooth.
Split in half (I save one half in an airtight container or ziplock baggie for another night)
Let the dough "relax" for 5 minutes, so that it will be easier to roll out.

Shape your pizza, and brush with the extra olive oil, then add the rest of your desired toppings. My kids aren't fans of red sauce, so we tend to go with some combination of the following:
(We always have cheese and sauteed onion slices)

• meat of some sort (leftover meatballs(sliced), rotisserie chicken, slices of Al Fresco chicken sausages, etc...)
• sliced grape tomatoes
• roasted red pepper strips
• slices of calamata olives
• sauteed mushrooms
• steamed broccoli
• minced garlic

Pop it into the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Be sure to let it cool a couple of minutes after baking, so that nobody burns the roof of their mouth.

So... this is what works for us, and I thought I'd share! :) You can find out what works for other families at We are THAT Family which is hosting "Works For Me Wednesday" posts

Blessings~
Lis